50 days of postmarketOS

Re:50 days of postmarketOS by justinsaccount on Saturday July 15, 2017 @12:30AM (#14775032)

Even if half of the hardware features don't work, having a working, standards based linux image for old cell phones is super useful for prototyping random IoT devices.

An old cell phone is like a raspberry pi, if a pi had a built in touchscreen, camera, microphone, battery, wifi, and gps.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:50 days of postmarketOS by maxaf on Saturday July 15, 2017 @12:35AM (#14775052)

I've worked for an IoT company once where random old Android phones were sometimes called "best Raspberry Pi ever made".

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:50 days of postmarketOS by Animats on Saturday July 15, 2017 @01:10PM (#14777683)

I use old EeePC subnotebooks for that, which I get on eBay for about $40. Compute power, WiFi, wired Ethernet, USB, a keyboard, screen, trackpad, battery backup, and case. With a Raspberry Pi you usually have to add peripherals just to talk to the thing.

When I get one in I immediately install Xubuntu from a USB stick and do a total wipe.

(If you do this, get a real ASUS power supply. The cheapo ones with no brand and no UL certification overheat. Fires have been reported.)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:50 days of postmarketOS by flamedoge on Saturday July 15, 2017 @01:54AM (#14775208)

There's quite a truth to that. I have used old smartphone as a dashcam with offline maps/navigation in one single package in the past.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:50 days of postmarketOS by floatboth on Saturday July 15, 2017 @08:58AM (#14776423)

And if it didn't have a convenient array of GPIO pins.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:50 days of postmarketOS by yjftsjthsd-h on Saturday July 15, 2017 @11:09AM (#14777017)

True, but lots of us don't care about that

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:50 days of postmarketOS by agumonkey on Saturday July 15, 2017 @06:45AM (#14776024)

Yeah, as many laptops at first I was very happy to be able to have a posix os running for "basic" (if emacs can be called basic) tasks.

Very very happy to know there's alpine for phones now.

[ Parent | on HN ]